Agence France-Presse,
MOSCOW: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has denied a British newspaper report alleging that former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran make missiles capable of hitting European capitals.
'It's delirium, nonsense,' said Ivanov, questioned by journalists in New Delhi, where he was attending joint Russian-Indian military exercises, on a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph.
Russia aims 'to observe scrupulously the non-proliferation regime,' Interfax and RIA-Novosti news agencies quoted Ivanov as saying.
The Sunday Telegraph quoted unnamed Western intelligence officials as saying the Russians were middlemen in a multi-million-dollar deal on secret missile technology negotiated between Iran and North Korea in 2003.
